Nationwide Series – Kroger 200 7/25/09

From the back to the front as Carl Edwards wins under the lights @ O’Reilly Raceway Park Saturday night!

Rain delayed Sprint Cup Series on-track activities @ IMS forcing Edwards and the ‘double-duty’ drivers to miss Nationwide Series qualifying. Edwards made it into the race per owner points and started 42nd.

(Photo credit: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

“I definitely like starting in the back,” he said. “It would be fine with me if we qualified for points and inverted the field every week. I think that would be a lot more exciting racing. It’s fun when you’ve got fast cars starting in the back. I know the crowd likes it, especially for these short races.”

After 4 laps into the race, Edwards had already moved up 15 spots. He took over the lead for the first time on lap 121, but lost it to Kyle Busch after a caution on lap 170. Edwards quickly charged back inciting door-to-door short track racin’ until he took over the lead for good on lap 179 and cruised to victory.

“The last pit stop, I was searching for gears and Kyle Busch got ahead of us,” Edwards said. “The 18 car had a good stop and then, the race was on. It was a pretty good battle. It was a lot of fun. That was just hard, hard racing.”

Busch has finished 1st or 2nd in every race since his win @ Nashville on June 6th.

“We didn’t deserve to get second,” Busch said. “Because when we bounced it off the wall twice at the end of the race, we should have fell back to about 5th or 6th.”

Matt Kenseth finished 3rd in his 1st outing @ ORP in 10 years. Brad Keselowski finished 4th right in front of Steve Wallace, Ron Hornaday Jr, polesitter Trevor Bayne, Jason Leffler, Scott Wimmer and Kenny Wallace.

For the (unofficial) race results, click here.

There were 6 cautions for 34 laps and 7 lead changes among 6 drivers: T. Bayne 1-34; R. Hornaday Jr. 35-53; S. Wimmer 54-92; J. Keller 93-96; K. Busch 97-120; C. Edwards 121-170; K. Busch 171-178; C.Edwards 179-200